Airport Shift Could Raise Noise Here

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND To Carolyn Goodwin, the plane flying over her north Bainbridge Island home around 4 a.m. was like an alarm clock.

"It sounds like these planes are on approach to land on our roof," she wrote to the Port of Seattle in January. "There's no way to sleep through it."

Her complaint seemed to work, she said. The daily wake-up fly-by stopped.

With Southwest Airlines lobbying to use King County International Airport, commonly known as Boeing Field, however, Goodwin wonders whether Kitsap will begin getting a steady diet of airplane noise.

"It really concerns me, because it seems it would be a likelihood that planes would be flying lower farther north," she said.

If what airport noise experts say is true, more airplane noise will be noticeable and people will complain.

According to a flight tracking map available at the King County International Airport Web site (www.metrokc.gov/airport/noise/flight_tracks.jpg), many flights taking off out of Boeing Field fly directly over much of Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap, as well as areas south and east of Port Orchard.

Some of those planes are already at 8,000 feet or higher when they pass by, but some appear to be as low as 2,000 feet, less than a half-mile above ground.

Larry Brown, who lives in southwest Bainbridge Island and said he doesn't notice the planes from his home, was driving to catch the 4:45 a.m. Friday ferry when he heard a loud jet passing over Winslow.

With Kitsap County 5 miles or more away from the airport, the noise may not be deafening. But according to an airport noise consultant, that may not matter.

"People that are traditionally beyond the significant noise contours are going to have an overnight change in the number of aircraft overhead, and they're going to respond," said Bill Albee, special project manager for airport noise consulting firm Wylie Laboratories in Arlington, Va. Albee was formerly noise policy manager and aviation noise ombudsman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Albee said anytime there is a change in airplane traffic patterns, it triggers grumbling. When Denver opened its new airport in 1995 people as far as 25 miles away complained about planes flying over.

Albee said that was because those people had never had planes flying over. In Kitsap County, if there were a difference it would be represented in an increase of flights, particularly in 737s flying lower over the area.

Planes leaving Seattle-Tacoma International Airport already do fly over Kitsap, but come from about 4 miles farther away.

Southwest Airlines has offered to spend $130 million for a new terminal, parking garage and other facilities in order to begin operating from Boeing Field instead of Sea-Tac by 2009.

Southwest's plan — which would have to be approved by King County and appears to be a long shot — could mean 60 more flights per day going in and out of Boeing initially, eventually rising to 85.

That number could increase if Alaska Airlines gets to use Boeing as well. Alaska opposes Southwest's move, but wants in if its competitor gets to go. Alaska has 133 departures out of Sea-Tac every day. Assuming arrivals match that number, that would more than 260 Alaska flights added to Southwest's 85.

The airlines could minimize complaints depending on the time of day they fly in and out. Les Blomberg, director of The Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, a nonprofit educational organization in Montpelier, Vt., said when the FAA was taking comments for a draft aviation noise policy, the majority of comments from citizens dealt with planes flying too late or too early.

"What people said is the biggest problem with aircraft is they wake us up at night," Blomberg said.

If Southwest gets its way, Albee said most people will probably eventually get used to the added noise, during waking hours anyway, and cease complaining.

The first year, however, may be a shock, he said. "My guess is you turn on a flow of Southwest and Alaska and double and triple the operations overnight, you're going to get a public response."

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